Cops bust internet scammers, arrest local woman and her five Nigerian lovers

KUALA LUMPUR: Police busted a "internet parcel scam" syndicate after arresting five Nigerian nationals and their lover who allegedly bore several of their children.

The 42-year-old Malaysian national, who has been the lover of all five of the syndicate members, is said to have borne 12 children with several different fathers and has worked for the syndicate impersonating government and bank officials to scam their victims.

The woman, who also worked as a bank account holder for the syndicate, also admitted to allegedly receiving RM1.5mil to RM2mil of transaction into her bank account while working for the syndicate.

Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigations Department (CCID) deputy director (intelligence and operations) Senior Asst Comm Datuk Jalil Hassan said that the suspects were arrested in several spots in the Klang Valley during an operation on Thursday with police seizing 14 bank account books, 21 ATM cards, 10 handphones and several other items.

"Our initial investigations revealed that all five of the Nigerian suspects were in Malaysia on student visas," he told a press conference at the Federal CCID headquarters in Bukit Perdana here yesterday.

He added that nine others including six women, who were working for the syndicate as bank account holders were also arrested.

SAC Jalil said all the suspects, aged between 26 and 39, have been remanded to facilitate investigation following the arrests made on Thursday.

He added police got a lead on the syndicate when a 60-year-old Singaporean woman who lived in Johor Bharu was duped into parting with RM566,590.93 by a syndicate member who led her into believing that she would receive a parcel containing 750,000 sterling pounds.

"They had met in Facebook in July last year. The syndicate member was impersonating an Irish man who was interested in the victim," he said adding that the syndicate member then told the victim he had sent a parcel to her home in Johor Bharu through courier service.

"The victim then received an email saying that the parcel has already arrived at customs but she would have to pay transaction and insurance fees for the parcel to claim it. Believing his sweet talk and promises, he said the woman had deposited money into several local bank accounts," said SAC Jalil adding that the victim deposited the money in 12 different transactions in to 12 different accounts amounting to RM566,590.93.

After the last transaction was made, the woman realised that she had been duped as the parcel never arrived, forcing her to lodge a police report on Jan 21.

SAC Jalil said investigation also revealed that syndicate members would pay between four to five percent of the total transaction to the account holders to open local bank accounts.

He added that police believe that the syndicate has been operating for two to three years and has duped more than RM7mil.

"We will continue our investigation. We hope that people would not trust others that they meet on the internet easily," he added.

If you have been scammed and tricked into depositing money or payments into bank accounts in Malaysia, make a police report and the Commercial Crime Investigation Department will deal with it when 2 or more reports have been received. If only one police report is received, such fraudulent account will be blacklisted and be listed on their website: http://ccid.rmp.gov.my/semakmule/

Cops cracking down on mule accounts to curb rise in cybercrimes

5 March 2018

KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — With the rise of cybercrimes, the police have launched a nationwide crackdown on mule accounts in a bid to cripple syndicates involved in fraudulent activities.

Federal Commercial Crime Investigations Department (CCID) director Commissioner Datuk Seri Amar Singh said a total of 44 account holders involved in 319 cases with a recorded loss of RM17.29 million have been detained since the operation commenced last Thursday.

All of those picked up were aged between 21 and 57, with 27 of the suspects being women.

Mule accounts are local bank accounts used by syndicate members comprised of mostly foreigners to withdraw and deposit their illicit gains from frauds.

“Most of the account holders are housewives who were tricked into giving their bank details to be misuse by the scammers impersonating as a love interest.

“Some of them are aware of the ongoing scam by allowing the suspects to use their account to deposit money,” Amar said at the federal CCID headquarters here.

The police said at least 40 per cent of commercial crime cases reported involved common cybercrimes such as the Macau Scam, African Scam and E-Financial Fraud (online shopping scams).

Amar said in 2016, 12,766 out of 32,871 cases (39 per cent) involved cybercrime, increasing to 13,714 out of 30,612 cases (44.7 per cent) last year.

“For the first quarter of 2018, we have 42.6 per cent of similar cases reported involving at least RM60million in losses,” he said.

Statistics also showed that 1,072 accounts were involved in 1,247 cases last year, compared to 973 accounts involving 1,033 cases in 2016.

He said police identified such accounts after receiving at least five reports involving the three modus operandi concerning the account in question.

“We urged the public not to be easily swayed by individuals by offering them their bank account details as they can be arrested for criminal abetment.

“We will also be going after accounts that have been reported at least two to three times to leave no stone unturned as it is an ongoing operation,” he said.

Malaysians can visit the official federal CCID portal, http://ccid.rmp.gov.my/semakmule/ to check the status of a blacklisted mule account before making any financial transactions.

Fraudulent accounts that have been reported to the police at least once will be automatically blacklisted on the portal’s database.